


Orpheus

by Elias Bergman (sashawrites)



Series: The Art Of Making It [1]
Category: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-11
Updated: 2019-08-11
Packaged: 2020-08-19 03:36:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20203081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sashawrites/pseuds/Elias%20Bergman
Summary: Just when it feels as though nothing would ever be alright again, the only person Melissa wants to see finds her. That's not to say things will be alright from there on.When trust is stronger than reason—and just a pinch of wishful thinking is at play—this Orpheus won't turn.What popped into my mind when I wondered what happened to Melissa while I was playing A Safe Place To Land on repeat, after thinking too much about the hive's art of seduction.





	Orpheus

She clasped her hands over her ears, but it was no use. The sheer volume with which her boss was singing out her name rendered her unable to shield herself from it. The pause let her know he'd soon threaten to fire her, again, if she didn't show herself.

“I don't pay you to hide from your work, Melissa.” Even the monotone scolding was a relief from the singing. When she had seen what she had figured had to be a flash mob, on her way home from work, the other day, it had made her smile. She should have left town, right then. No, not without her. She'd never leave without her. She had nowhere to hide, at Beanie's. Melissa's throat tightened with the thought of her facing all these involuntary singers. Whatever it was, it scared her senseless. She had never been scared of Mr. Davidson before. He was an oddball, but harmless. Usually. Usually he didn't sing. Usually, he didn't order people into his office to turn them into singing puppets.

After another one of Davidson's newly recruited singers passed by, she thought she made out the humming of a voice she had heard hum before. Her heart leapt in relief. She was alive! They could get out of here and run and they might just be alright.

“Mel?”

“I'm here,” she answered, removed her barricade and creaked the door to the supply room open. This had been a good hiding spot, but this door now only served to separate them. She found her.  
“Nora, thank G-d you're okay!”

She had found her. Melissa didn't look around. She wasn't scared, anymore. Not with Nora here. Not with her in her arms. Nora lead her back into the little room she had been hiding in. Sure, it was still the safer place to make a plan, than the hallway, but as soon, as the door clicked shut, Melissa couldn't help but notice something was off.

“Nora?” She had always had bright blue eyes, but this was a different shade. This wasn't Nora's blue. This was a deeper glow that made Melissa's breath catch in her throat.

_“You opened up, you let me in. Like I had hoped, we meet again.”_

“What?”

The smile she was met with was not her Nora, at all. Whoever this was, was not her wife.

“I brought a gift for you.” If this wasn't Nora, whoever she was was too damn good at imitating her. She smelled of coffee and cinnamon and home. In her eyes, something shone through, for just a moment, that was unmistakably her.

The blue stuff running down the side of her chin was not a gift she wanted. Not from someone impersonating Nora. Who would do that? Not to mention how? Why? The constant humming was grinding her nerves to shreds. Nora would never corner her without warning like this. Whatever was causing all the singing around town had gotten her.

“Stay back. You're not Nora.”

“What? Of course it's me. You're just scared, baby.” Every fiber in her being wanted to believe her. She always wanted to believe her. She'd trust Nora with everything she held dear, any day of the week. Her conscious mind told her to run, to fight, to destroy this person abusing her wife's face to fool her. The rest of her was set on staying right here, in a supply room with this familiar form against hers and those familiar locks tickling her face.

It was barely above a whisper when she spoke again, “Get away from me.” Most of her couldn't mean it.

“Don't…” She had trouble making herself reject her, but if this wasn't her Nora, then this was no one she wanted this close. If she wasn't leaving her alone, Melissa would have to run. “Let me go.”

“It's okay, Mel, we're safe here.”

A part of Melissa's mind was still protesting, but the only thing making it out were unintelligible mumbling and an uncoordinated step forward. This creepy imitation of Nora was all too willing to use the momentum to spin both of them around. Now it was Nora up against the wall. It would have been an unwise strategy, if Melissa's survival instincts had had any chance against those telling her to kiss her.

For just a moment it was, as if they were at home, ready to take each other's minds off the day's work and the car that needed fixing and their paychecks that could only cover either that or their rent. For just a moment, they had found each other in this escalating chaos and she needed her close, to breathe her in, in case this was the last chance she got. For just a moment, Melissa let herself forget she was in a battle for her life. For just a moment, she let it happen. Then she felt the goo burn her from the inside like a bite of food you swallow too hot. It didn't burn long, though and she couldn't care, either. Not with her lips on Nora's and her face in her hand and her arm around her waist. So what if it burned a little? She had her.

Before her mind could form a single hint at a thought, the burning dulled down and spread through her whole body as a light, warm numbness. When Nora looked at her again, her insane grin could only scare that rational little corner of her mind. It was enough to ignite the terror, as she realized what was going on. For just a moment, the rest of her mind might as well have been cotton candy, before it was cleared up by the hum of hundreds, if not thousands of voices.

Melissa watched herself follow the being that looked like Nora out of their shelter. She wasn't in control anymore. She was trapped in this terrified corner of her consciousness with nothing to do but dread what lay ahead. Melissa was no longer in control, not of her body, not of her voice. They became one with the office workers they left the building with. Their destination: the Starlight Theater, where the hive's most valuable asset needed their protection. Melissa tried what she could to drown out the song she was singing with them all. This had to be the nightmare of a lifetime. There was no way this was happening, right? They would have been warned of a meteorite. And musical aliens? What point was that? Why would this be real?

No, she didn't quite have the imagination to dream up this horror. She would have screamed just to release the pressure on the sane remnant of her mind, but there was nothing left to do.

The entity taking over couldn't wait to lay _her_ eyes on the source of its life, its mother and queen. _It_ felt content moving in unison, singing in harmony, moving in sync with what had once been a large portion of the Hatchetfield citizens. Honestly, the entire thing was slightly less terrifying, now that she could hear the music. Just the slightest little bit less bloodcurdling. Not that it was much of a comfort. She'd rather not see or hear or feel anything. Not when she was a mere passenger in her own body.

She'd rather be dead than stick around to powerlessly witness what might well be the end of human civilization. Would soon everyone she knew be in the same position? A prisoner in a global musical production? Melissa had never been one to surrender. She didn't just throw in the towel. She wanted to stop, at least, the thing controlling her. She needed this to end. She tried. She couldn't find a way out of this. The entity in her mind only acknowledged she was still there by shamelessly rifling through her memories, looking for anything vaguely useful to its purpose.

If there was a greater power in the universe, They had abandoned the humans. Maybe, just maybe G-d was dead. She imagined hopelessness to be a mercy, at this point, but it wasn't within her reach. Not yet.

**Author's Note:**

> These ladies will receive more love in the other parts of this series, I promise. They deserve better. I'm nowhere near done with those, though. Bear with me?
> 
> I don't even know where this pairing came from. I just decided to run with it. I realize this would work better, if I had already posted the first chapters of the main work, but my anxiety won't let me post before it's all finished.


End file.
